Fail Tale: Media Portal Technologies

Fail Tale is a new type of article on Wired.co.uk that
celebrates failure and the steep learning curve that it
offers.

In 2003, Graham Cooke -- currently managing director of
analytics company Qubit -- set up Media Portal Technologies, a company that aimed
to stream video and music into public spaces such as pubs,
restaurants and shopping centres over the internet. The venues
would get a cut of any advertising sold against the content.
However, after trying to do too many things at once, the business
failed. It closed down in 2005 after Cooke was approached for a job
at Google.

What was the company's mistake?
There were two main issues. The first was focus -- we tried to do
too many things and lost grip of the core USP. Once we had the idea
of streaming video, we tried to apply
it to too many use cases. The other mistake was not getting a
business partner on board -- with some support I think I could have
made the idea work better than it did.

How did this affect the business and its
employees?
The failure to focus meant that we never really got the business
working commercially. The constant chasing for new opportunities
meant that we never got the deals in place that would have made the
business viable in the long term.

Did the company fail completely? It didn't fail completely, I just shuttered the business
when I got the job offer from Google as I felt that I'd learn a lot
more there than I would soldiering on with a loss-making business
on my own. There weren't any full time employees by that point so
it didn't hurt anyone else when it closed down, thankfully.

How have you applied that other business ventures? My time with Media Portal Technologies taught me a
lot of things that I've applied to QuBit. I've got three
co-founders (all from Google) so we can spread the load and
collaborate on decision making. We're also really focused on doing
what we do best --building products that help retailers and
publishers optimise their websites. The technology we've built
could be used for lots of different things, but I'm constantly
reminding myself of what happened at Media Portal and resisting the
temptation to stray into new areas.

Do you think your business is a contender for Fail Tale?
Email Olivia Solon on pitches@wired.co.uk